Gawker Media founder Nick Denton has filed for personal bankruptcy after failing to win a court order that would protect him from having to pay out most of the $140 million verdict in Hulk Hogan’s sex-tape lawsuit.
Hogan—aka Terry Bollea, aka the Hulkster—named Denton as a co-defendant in his case against Gawker Media, which declared bankruptcy and began the process of selling itself to a new owner after a Florida jury decided that it had violated the wrestler’s privacy by publishing part of a video of him having sex with a friend’s wife. Filing for Chapter 11 effectively prevented Hogan from collecting on the judgment from Gawker while the jury’s decision was being appealed. However, the court declined to extend that protection to Denton himself, who was liable for $125 million of the damages. A Florida appeals court also refused to overrule a lower-court decision that gave Hogan the go-ahead to seize Denton’s assets. As Law360 reported late last month, “A personal Chapter 11 filing would give Denton, via an automatic bankruptcy stay, breathing room during the appeal.” Or, in other words, as long as he’s in bankruptcy, he won’t have to pony up anything until the Hogan suit is entirely settled.
In the meantime, Denton tweeted out a hopeful message Monday.
Said tech billionaire is, of course, Peter Thiel, who funded Hogan’s lawsuit as a rather breathtaking act of personal revenge for a Gawker story that outed him as gay years ago. In tangentially related news, Thiel is currently investigating whether he might be able to live forever by undergoing transfusions of young people’s blood. You know, sort of like a vampire.
